I had all these plans when I started this blog, and on the books/review front I’ve been pretty on top of it. On the writing front – not so much.

To try and rectify that, I’m giving myself a blank slate. It’s 2019, and we’re going to start over from #1.I’ve been working on revisions almost daily since the beginning of the month, and it’s going okaaay…I guess. I’m 11 Chapters into my WIP and I can see the story starting to come together which is nice. I’m working diligently to find the right words and get rid of all the unnecessary ones – my main goal(s) being to cut words and make sure my timeline is accurate.

I’ve been trying to do a chapter a night, sometimes two if they’re really short.

Seeing as I have a pounding headache tonight, and just writing this blogpost hurts my eyes to stare at this screen (because I forgot to write it in advance) I’m choosing not to work on my WIP – selfcare and all.

But, you guy, I edited a chapter last night, and all day I’ve been thinking about how much I hate it. Usually when I’ve finished a chapter, I feel good, but no. Not this one. This one has been slowly eating away at me.

I did hit a snag at the beginning of this last chapter – a large glaring plot issue that in my last full draft is mentioned in Chapter 12 but isn’t resolved until chapters 27-29???

Your guess is as good as mine as to why there’s that big of a gap between points A and B, because there really shouldn’t be. So, I spent one WHOLE day trying to figure out how to reorganize scenes and what needed to happen, and how it needed to happen. I’ve been trying to be very meticulous about what needs to be in the story – what’s actually crucial to the progression of the characters and the plot, and not just what I want to be in the story.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not taking everything, and a lot of what does happen, are things that I want in stories that I read, but there is a lot of excess in my WIP and it needs to go.

As much as I would love – absolutely love to let you all read my 140K WIP as it stands, I do know it’s not my best work.

I also know these changes are for the better. I know my characters so well – or at least I thought I did. My two MC’s – McKenna and Connor – have surprised me quite a bit with this round of revisions. McKenna is a lot more level headed now, not as quick to anger (she’s still an independent hot head, but she takes a breath and thinks instead of just reacting) and Connor, he’s more in touch with his emotions, and knows when he’s being mistreated. They’ve grown up since the last time I worked on them.

Revisions are hell, but I think they’re going pretty smoothly – it’s still the beginning of the book, and stuff has happened, but I’m not really in the swing of things yet. I will be soon though. I have the next 13ish chapters reorganized and outlined, so they should (hopefully) go pretty quickly.

As a way to track my progress and show how far I’ve come, here are the differences between the Last Draft (LD) and the Revised Draft (RD)

LD: Prologue – Chapter 12: 37,348 words

RD: Prologue – Chapter 10: 28,298 words

9,050 words gone. Wow.  I’m happy with that.

I think this is where I’m going to end this – I’ll do another update soon, and hopefully I’ll be at the halfway point of my WIP, or I’ll be rewriting a single chapter over and over. Who knows?

Are you currently working on a story? If so, what is one thing the world should know about your MC? Feel free to leave a comment!